Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Unfairly Judged

Chapter 5 – Improbable

No One's POV

Beck had spoken to Jade and given her the best advice he could think of. The best advice possible, he really didn't know about that, but at least best he could think of. Beck knew of course he did not have all the answers, but wanted to try. He just hoped that his advice would help to resolve the situation. But like the proverbial camel, you can lead it to water but can't make it drink.

He knew he needed to now talk to Tori, but wasn't sure if he'd be able to until Thursday, when she'd return to school. At the very least, he hoped to talk Tori into not doing anything that would make it worse. Plus to tell her that all was not lost.

After the next hour he went up to Trina at her locker and tapped her on the shoulder.

The elder Latina spun around and bellowed, "What?"

Of course when she saw it was Beck, whom she adored, smiled, quickly brushed an out of place hair into its proper spot and batted her eyes.

"Oh, Hi Beck. What…what….can I do to…er I mean for you."

For a moment Beck forgot what he was about to say as he found her obvious attempt to impress, actually rather enticing.

"I was wondering if I could talk to Tori. I tried to call, but she didn't' answer. I'm guessing she can't use her phone." Beck said, quickly deciding against letting Trina know he had eavesdropped.

Trina realizing that Beck was only trying to reach Tori, she frowned. "She's mega grounded until Thursday, and that means, no phone, no internet, no email, no texts, no TV, no visitors, no nothing."

"Bummer. Well, could you please just let her know I'd like to speak with her, first thing Thursday morning. She can just find me on the main steps or by my locker. Ok."

"Sure. I'll do that."

"Thanks Trina" Said Beck, who as he walked off, found himself wishing she'd smile again.

Trina who was annoyed that Beck was only interested in Tori and not her, only made half an effort to remember to tell Tori. When she got home, she already had forgotten and didn't tell Tori.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident. The only difference was being the absence of Tori and the fact that Jade largely kept to herself.

Thursday morning came and at 7:30 Tori's car, now free of the skunk smell, rolled into the parking lot. Getting out of her car, she slung her bag over her shoulder and with a great deal of apprehension started towards the school.

Punching Jade, had not only resulted in a 3 day suspension but being grounded for that same amount of time. During this time Tori was not allowed to see anyone, speak to anyone on the phone or any other form of communication, other than her family of course. She was also restricted from using her computer, her phone, the TV and even the radio.

So as a result, she had little idea what if anything had happened at school. All Trina told her, was Jade was now sporting a large bruise and seemed moody and kept to herself.

All Tori could do was sit in her room, read and continue to feel horrible for hitting Jade. A girl she really liked. Not only has she cried, but had berated herself for letting her own anger get the best of her. It was who she was, who she wanted to be and Tori was deeply ashamed of what she'd done. At the same time she was angry for the things Jade had done to her.

Now in addition to feeling, horrible, guilty, depressed, angry and ashamed, she added fear to her list. What would Jade do in retaliation, if simply standing her up made her angry, what would decking her do? Could she make things up to Jade, at this point Tori dismissed that even as a possibility.

As she walked through the parking lot, she actually expected the Goth to jump out and jab a pair of scissors in her neck.

"Tori!" Came a female voice from behind, that startled the Latina.

Spinning around she, was relieved to see it was not Jade, but Emma Biltmore, a freshman who was in her Music Theory class.

"Yes?" Tori replied, with a good deal of uncertainty in her voice.

"I saw everything last Friday, I thought it was great you hit Jade, she's so mean and…."

Quickly shaking her head, Tori stopped Emma right there. "No, please don't say that. It was wrong."

Emma who seemed jubilant at first, quickly deflated. "Ok then, see you around."

Waking on again, Tori made it about halfway to the school when three more students came up. Like with Emma, they excitedly told Tori, how they enjoyed seeing Jade get clobbered. One even asked if she was going to finish her off.

Tori was feeling bad enough, but finding herself a local hero for doing something she was deeply ashamed of, quickly rubbed the Latina the wrong way. She didn't want the adulation, she didn't' want the attention and in fact she couldn't stand it.

Tori took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. "No, I'm not going to finish her off. What I did was wrong. Please don't make me a hero. I'm not. If you don't mind, I have to get to my locker."

Tori then walked off, hoping it was just some sort of fluke.

She made it to her still ruined locker, without anyone approaching her, but got a few nod's and one thumbs up which only caused the emotional storm within her to intensify.

"Please just let this all go away." Tori silently prayed as she pulled her locker open.

Alas her prayer wasn't answered and only a few seconds later another admirer came by to congratulate her. Again Tori told them that what she did was wrong, only a bit more tersely then before.

Looking over to Jade's locker, as she slammed hers shut, she could see the Goth was nowhere in sight. A sight, despite her emotional turmoil, she found oddly disappointing.

She hadn't seen any of her other friends and wondered where they were. She didn't have any of them in her first hour class, which was English, so she hoped to see someone eventually.

She also hoped to make it to her first hour class, without anyone else mentioning her punching Jade. A junior girl gave her the thumbs up and said.

"Way to punch Jade, boy did she ever deserve it. Let me know if you're going to do it again."

Really starting to detest the attention, Tori just kept going.

English went fine and as Tori exited the classroom, she dreaded more attention. She was about halfway when Claire Morgan, a somewhat hyper freshman, ran up.

"Oh my god, Tori. It was so cool what you did. Jade is always mean to me. I love seeing it, in fact I actually managed to tape it on my phone."

Claire then excitedly pushed her phone up in Tori's face and hit play.

Being bugged about it once again and this time made to see herself do it all over, sent Tori over the edge.

Exploding in anger, Tori shoved the phone away. "STOP IT! YES I HIT JADE, BUT IT WAS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER DONE. STOP IDOLIZING ME, I HATE WHAT I DID. I'M ASHAMED AND EMBARRASED, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Shocked by Tori's outburst, Claire stepped back looking like a child who's just had their balloon popped.

Tori's outburst also attracted the attention of several other students nearby, whom all looked at her with a mixture of surprise and shock. A second later, before she could do anything else, she noticed that Jade was one of the bystanders.

Standing off by the stairs, she could see the Goth starring at her with a somewhat critical expression.

Not able to take it anymore, Tori burst into tears and ran off. She just wanted to hid, make it go away. She ran past confused students and a teacher or two until she found herself by the currently empty black box theatre. So she ran in there, sat down on the stage and cried.

Everything was a mess, thought Tori. She had no idea if she'd ever be able to face Jade, her friends or anyone at school. She had no idea what to do and after a few minutes started to consider, transferring back to Sherwood.

Before she had time to think it through further, she heard the door open then close again. Looking up she could see it was Beck.

"Hey there! Are you ok." He said softly as he cautiously walked towards the stage.

"No!" Sobbed Tori.

Beck kept walking and then sat down close, but not too close to Tori. "You didn't come looking for me this morning. Didn't Trina tell you, I wanted to talk to you right away?"

"No she didn't!"

"She was supposed to." Beck said, as he inched closer.

"What difference does it make?. Everything's ruined. Jade hates me, everyone else things I'm some hero. I'm not a hero. I need to just go back to Sherwood." Replied, the very upset Latina.

Beck then put a reassuring hand on Tori's shoulder. "Look Tori, things look bad, I know. But I'm here to tell you that all hope is not lost. First I need you to try and calm down, relax a bit."

Feeling a bit comforted, Tori looked over to Beck. "How is all hope not lost? Jade detested me before, now, she's going to kill me, plain and simple. Everyone else is cheering me on. I hate it."

"Tori, yes you messed up. You blew off Jade and as a result really hurt her feelings. Then you let anger get the best of you and humiliated her. I'm not excusing all those things she did, they were wrong and she owes you an apology. But you owe her one too."

Tori wiped a tear. "It won't matter."

Beck raised a single finger in Tori's face, to really make the point come home. "That's where you're really wrong. Look, I know Jade and she can be….difficult, for lack of a better term. But she is human and I think you see that. You sense that she's very special and I can tell you, she is. I know it's hard to see beneath that shell of hers, but you need to keep trying. It's worth it. I spoke to her a few days ago and what I said, for the most part, I'll keep private and vise versa for what I tell you. But I know that you can earn her forgiveness. "

"How do you know that? That she won't just come in here and kill me."

"Who do you think sent me in to talk to you?"

Pausing, Tori shook her head in disbelief. "No, that can't be…."

"I came down the hallway a few minutes ago and she stopped me, said you yelled at Claire for idolizing her, then burst into tears and ran off. She asked me or actually demanded that I to talk to you and pointed in the direction you went. Now if she wanted you dead, she'd be the one coming through that door and in this empty theatre she'd have no problem beating you to a pulp, with no witnesses. Instead she sent me."

Still unable to believe it, Tori lowered her head. "What else did she say?"

"Nothing, she simply said what happened and ordered me to talk to you. Then she walked off. Look, I essentially told her that if she wanted to fix this, perhaps even still had feelings for you. If that was something she wanted to do, than she should do it. Jade heard you say that you were ashamed and embarrassed about what you've done. While not an apology and you do owe her one, it showed her that you had great remorse. She responded in kind by sending me. An indication that she wants to straighten things out. You took a step and she took a step. People can surprise you sometimes. Jade is no exception."

"She does?"

"Yes, but I told her and I'll tell you, that things have gotten pretty far and it won't be easy. She's still very mad at you and her feelings are still very hurt. It could still go either way. Probably why she sent me and not spoke to you herself. She's probably not ready yet or afraid she'll do something rash. You can earn her forgiveness, but you'll have to work for it. But in that vein, make her work for your forgiveness. I'd suspect she'd expect no less. I can't guarantee you two will make it anywhere, but I can tell you it is possible."

"I never thought that possible."

"I know you didn't you can't simply judge people like that, Jade especially. You can't let your anger get the best of you, it makes people stupid. You can't mess up like that again. You could have gotten expelled for hitting Jade. Don't do that Tori. Promise me, you won't do that again."

Tori, calmed by Becks assurances took a deep breath and sighed. "I will, but what about the others."

"What about them? Sure, you're the flavor of the week. Next week some moron will get drunk and post pictures of themselves naked on the slap and it will be Tori who. So, no one's going to be in here until 3rd period. Just sit in here, relax, calm down and think of how you want to try and fix this. If you want to?"

Tori looked Beck and made a hopeful smile. "I want to."

Beck stood up. "Good, I need to get to class. Just remember, you have friends, me, Andre, Robbie, Cat. Talk to us if you need anything. See you round."

Tori watched as Beck quietly walked out of the black box theatre and once again she was alone. It seemed improbable that Jade would actually send Beck to talk to her after all that had happened. But that was just as improbable as Jade asking her out. She had expressed remorse for what she'd done and in turn Jade sent some help. For the first time since this all started she had hope and a chance. She would take that chance and do her best to make her amends and hoped Jade would respond in kind.

Sitting there the words of Beck rang through her mind. "People can surprise you sometimes."

Tori thought again for a moment and said. "Indeed they can."

So Tori had a rough morning and blew up at Claire, but in doing so she expressed remorse for what she'd done and Jade showing some humanity, sent Beck to talk to her.

Now they have to overcome the hurt feelings, anger and hopefully get to the point were they can really take that date.

Glad everyone is enjoying the story and again thanks for all the kind reviews.